


Selkies

by Challis2070



Category: MindCrack RPF
Genre: Gen, Irish Mythology - Freeform, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 02:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19286143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Challis2070/pseuds/Challis2070
Summary: Selkies- People who turn into seals. Or seals who turn into people.





	Selkies

Pyro stared at the ocean. He didn’t much…care for going to it, it hurt. Not like stepping on shells or something, but a very deep unidentifiable pain, of loss and longing. He _wanted_ to go to the sea, the ocean, but he just…it always hurt, always and that then was just…better to stay away, regardless of how much he wanted to go, as it hurt less to not go than to go and have that unidentifiable pain and longing.   
  
There was the joke that he, among others, had washed ashore during the last big storm and that he and the others had been adopted by various families. Now…he knew of course, that he was adopted. But it wasn’t a terribly unusual thing, after all. And it certainly didn’t mean those stories were true!  
  
Stuff about selkies and all…that was just old Irish nonsense! Seals were seals; they couldn’t become people and leave their seal skins behind. Was…was that what he always was looking for, mindlessly wandering the house when he was bored, looking for something that he wasn’t sure even what it was, but he’d know it when he found it? Wait, no that was just a silly old legend. Silly Irish people and their silly myths.  
  
Also, how do you go about asking someone about that? “Hey, by the way, are selkies real? And if so, am I one?” Yeah, that just sounds very…dumb. And even so, he’d need to go into a green area to even ask that question! Better to not, then.  
  
He shook his head and turned back to his computer.   
  
\-----  
  
He sighed as he hung up the phone. There was the occasional wonder of how exactly phones even worked underwater, but they did. And he hated that. He didn’t much care for that…how shall he put it? That side of his family? Sure, that works. He didn’t really consider them family, after all, they never went looking for him until _after_ he found his own seal skin.  
  
Very annoying, that was. He and several others had been…swept away, before washing up all around Ireland. As far as he knew, he was the only one of the group who had chosen to remain on land after discovering their seal skins.  
  
And…that was why he was called. Apparently, he wasn’t quite right about that. Out of all known to have been washed up and raised on land, he was the only one to choose to stay, yes. However, there was another who it was believed hadn’t found his skin yet. And so, they, them, those negligent…they wanted him to go find the other and, probably, _return_ him or her to them.  
  
Personally he thought that if they hadn’t found their skin yet, and by the sound of it they’d be at least 21 if not 22 now, then they weren’t looking for it really at all, and therefore, wouldn’t want to return to people who had lost them and never gone looking for them!  
  
But well, he could hear the phone calls already if he didn’t go looking. “Deadbones, please.” “Deadbones, really now, he/she/it is lost.” “Please find them, Deadbones, please?” And even if he didn’t like them all that much, he still ought to at least find out why the kid hadn’t found his or her own seal skin yet.  
  
Besides, he was pretty damn certain as to who it was.  
  
\-----  
  
“Huh.”  
  
“What is it, Pyro?”  
  
“Deadbones said he wanted to meet up at this convention, Millbee.”  
  
“So? Why does that cause confusion?”  
  
“Because he’s said he actively avoided this convention before, and he said he specifically wanted to talk to me. Quietly.”  
  
“Oh. Yeah, that would be confusing.”  
  
Confusing yes. Annoying, also yes. This particular convention was on the ocean, which made it rather…tiring. He had managed however, to make it clear that he really really really didn’t want an ocean view though, this time.  
  
Deadbones had, however, implied that he wanted to talk because Pyro was adopted, and that was just even more annoying. Too many strange things with that. He’d even gone to the agency, and gotten his paper work. Deadbones had called him in the middle of reading through it, actually. What he had found had only succeeded in annoying him farther, however.  
  
He had been brought to the agency, apparently, by a husband and wife who were…fishermen seemed the wrong term to include the wife in, but…they fished for a living. And they _had_ found him while bringing in the rest of their stuff from the storm, but that didn’t mean…  
  
Okay, so it also included the delightful information that the wife hadn’t been lying as she had never been pregnant (how did they…he didn’t want to know how!), so. Also that he’d been found wrapped in what they referred to as a blanket, but if the stories were true, was actually a (probably damaged) seal skin. Apparently his parents had it now, in the box with everything else from the agency, at least according to the papers. He _had_ wanted something from before he was adopted, but if it _was_ a seal skin, that might be a bad idea, actually.  
  
He swore to himself and punched the bed repeatedly out of frustration. So **what** if he even was, then? It didn’t matter, he was gonna stay where he was _anyways_ stupid potential selkies be damned!  
  
\-----  
Deadbones sighed to himself as he tried to fall back asleep. That discussion with Pyro had gone…less than stellar, it was true.  
  
But apparently the kid had the same idea as he had, and had been re-reading the paperwork from the adoption agency, so that was good. Right?   
  
So he had done the next best thing and suggested they talk more tomorrow.   
  
The plan, as much as you could call it a plan, called for him to drag Pyro along the sea wall to see what his reaction to that was. In this case, he actually _was_ hoping for a bad reaction. The pain of being near the ocean, the longing, he remembered well from before he looked for and found his seal skin. And then he had told the selkies to fuck off and leave him alone, but still. If he was indeed (he was, he must be the kid they were looking for, everything else fit!) then he’d have the same bad reaction to the sea.  
  
\-----  
  
Pyro glowered at the pillow. He was suspecting that Deadbones _was_ in fact, trying to talk to him about mythological things. Things that involved selkies. He could have _sworn_ he saw a hint of a seal skin peeking out from under Deadbones’ shirt when he turned too fast…  
  
The pillow, despite being innocent, got punched repeatedly by a frustrated young man.  
  
If he was right (and he certainly thought he was) then when they went to talk more (more? More? What more was needed? Aaagggggh) then Deadbones would probably try to drag him along the seawall to see his reaction.   
  
God damn it.  
  
He didn’t _want_ to go near the seawall, he didn’t _want_ to talk about selkies, he didn’t _want_ to deal with that nonsense. He was happy here damn it all, and he didn’t want to deal with any of that. He _wanted_ to finish school, and get a job and and and  
  
The pillow, as innocent as it ever was, suffered through more punching, silently not mentioning that Deadbones already had an answer for all of that.  
  
\-----  
  
Deadbones pensively stared out to sea. Or rather, he pretended to as he watched Pyro drag his way up the stairs to the path along the top of the seawall. Now, Pyro certainly seemed pissed off, sure enough, but…  
  
His questions were resolved when Pyro, upon reaching him were he stood on the seawall path, proceeded to lean into him and growl at him.  
  
“Ok, out with it, out! What is your purpose for bringing us here, you bastard?” he rumbled.   
  
“I thought it would be a nice view while we talked.” he said, sidestepping the issue.  
  
“Bullshit! You have a reason for bringing us here. You’ve been watching me the entire time. What is it, hm? What, what? I don’t like the sea; I told you…is that it? What, what? Are you going to drag me off into the sea, what, what, are you some awful Fenian pooka1, come to take me away? What, what?” he swore, almost foaming at the mouth.  
  
Deadbones started to back up, before realizing he was still along a seawall.  
  
“Ah, I am not a pooka. I do admit I’m surprised you know what one is.”  
  
“Fuck you, answer me, for god’s sake!”  
  
“As I said, I am not a pooka. We share that, indeed.”  
  
“No shit, get on with it, you bastard!”  
  
“Not a pooka. Sea based. Obviously.”  
  
“Obviously? What do I need to do, get you drunk so you’ll stop playing around?”  
  
Sure, sea based was obvious from the paperwork from the agency, but out with it!  
  
“Fine. Selkie, if you even know what that is, proddy.2”  
  
“Yes. And fuck you, I’m not a selkie, I’ve got no seal skin.”  
  
“Have you even…looked?”  
  
“…”  
  
“Thought so.”  
  
“My mother is sending the box of stuff from the agency…it should be here tomorrow.”  
  
“Fine then, how about we open it together, then?”  
  
“Oh fuck off. Fine!”  
  
With that, Pyro stalked off the seawall and back to the convention, stomping the entire way.  
  
“Idiot kid.” He laughed softly, ignoring that he was only a few years older.  
  
\-----  
  
They stared at the box in front of them.  
  
“It’s…bigger than I remember it being.”  
  
“Hm. It’s certainly well…wrapped.”  
  
“She likes to keep things safe.”  
  
Shaking their heads, they set to work to free the box from its packaging. Slowly but surely, it was finally released and they could start going through the stuff held within.   
  
“Huh, medical record.”  
  
“Put those back, you arse, you know what we’re looking for, and the rest can stay unlooked at, particularly by you!”  
  
“Fine, fine, it’s not a bad thing, you know.”  
  
Deadbones just sighed as Pyro glowered at him and kept sorting through the box. Before long, he felt something…familiar.  
  
“Ah, hm?”  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“I think…yes?” he mumbled as he slowly and carefully removed the item he had felt. Pyro stared as the ‘blanket’ came into view. It didn’t look much like a normal blanket, but sure looked like a skin of some sort.  
  
“Blanket.”, Pyro said, unbidden.  
  
“Blanket?”  
  
“Mine. Give me my blanket!” he said, almost growling again.  
  
“Here, here!” Deadbones said, shoving the ‘blanket’ at him.  
  
Pyro grabbed it with care and buried his head into it.  
  
“You…you realize what that is, _right_?”  
  
“ _Yesssss, I know, I know. Fuck off._ ”  
  
“No, tell me what it is. Please.”  
  
“ _It’s mine._ ”  
  
“More than that, please.”  
  
“ _It’s part of me, part of my skin. It…_ ” Pyro looked up then, looking slightly dizzy.  
  
“Am I, then?” he asked, quietly.  
  
“Well…yes. I mean, put it on. Oh don’t, we can breathe air just as well, and then you’ll” he stopped short as Pyro abruptly put the seal skin on and was replaced by a very panicky looking seal.   
  
“ **ORK ORK ORK ORK!** ”  
  
“Breathe, breathe! You remove it by, you see that part? Push it and then wrap it around your, ummm…hand.”  
  
“ **ORK ORK ORK!** ”  
  
“Look, for the love of…push it down and then around, not around then down!”  
  
“ **ORK ORK OH GOD I HATE YOU.** ”  
  
“Oh please. You had to learn at some point. Did you want to go swimming and then not know how to get back out?”  
  
“Well…okay, no. Wait!”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Please tell me I don’t have to…go out there.”  
  
“Well…”  
  
Pyro looked at him remarkably sadly, almost on the verge of tears.  
  
“Stop that.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s a selkie thing, you know, that instinctive ability to guilt trip people. And I can do it as well, so stop!”  
  
“But…?”  
  
He sighed softly, “Fine, though, no. You don’t have to. There is a…contingent near here, I can…call…them, and you can tell them to leave you alone.”  
  
“Call? How exactly do phones work underwater?”  
  
“You’re a mythological creature, and you want to know about phones?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“I have no idea. I know the government has radios that work underwater, probably based on that.”  
  
“I’m exhausted, can we do that tomorrow?”  
  
“Sure. Also, that’s normal, so you know.”  
  
Pyro nodded as he let Deadbones out of his hotel room, before closing down everything and crawling into the bed still partly wrapped in the seal skin. His seal skin. His.  
  
\-----  
  
The young selkie dignitary looked mildly concerned at the ranting young man standing somewhat higher up the rocks than was normal for selkies.  
  
He turned to Deadbones and asked quietly, “He _does_ know we won’t try to force him to come with us, right?”  
  
“Yes. He’s just…you _do_ remember how pissed off _I_ was, right? He’s…worse…”  
  
“Indeed. What…is a Fenian? And how am I one?”  
  
Deadbones blinked, but before he could answer, a young selkie woman said something to the man quietly, in their language, which he only partly understood.  
  
“Oh! He’s a unionist, then?”  
  
“Yes, so you can understand why he’s a bit upset.”  
  
“Certainly. Well then.”  
  
The young man stepped forward and waved up at Pyro until his ranting slowed to a stop.  
  
“ **WHATDOYOUWANT?** ”  
  
“As I was trying to say before, your decision to remain on land will be respected, but we ask that if you have any questions, to try talking to Deadbones here first, and if he can’t answer, he’ll have the number to call us with.”  
  
“FINE. WAIT. HOW…how do your phones even work?”  
  
The young woman looked like she was going to fall over from laughing.  
  
“Similar to underwater radios. You _do_ know that signals travel father through water, right?”  
  
“I…oh.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Pyro shrugged slightly.  
  
“Fine, I’ll agree to keep in contact with Deadbones, that’s fine.”  
  
“Okay then, take care.”  
  
With that, both the woman and the man rather abruptly became seals again and swam off.  
  
“Uh.”  
  
“No, that’s normal for them. Once things are done, they just vamoose.”  
  
“Oh, okay…then…I’ll…talk to you later?”  
  
“Later.”  
  
They both scrambled off the rocks and back up onto the seawall.  
  
“That was…interesting.”  
  
“Mmm. I…don’t much care for…but I do have a library of books I’ve been given on, uh…us, so.”  
  
“I’ll remember that, thanks.”  
  
Pyro sighed as he walked back to his hotel room. While that solved most of the issue, as bizarre as the issue turned out to be that Deadbones had wanted to talk about, he now had a new problem.  
  
How exactly do you keep a seal skin safe?

**Author's Note:**

> 1 Fenian (used as a curse in this case, but technically an Irish nationalist, usually.) Pooka- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAca
> 
> 2 Counter-point to calling someone a Fenian, or rather, from the other side. Short for Protestant.


End file.
